When I tried sleeping around 2 am, my face just started to twitch and just went into full blown facial spasms where my face started twitching and making all these weird faces and I'm doing it as I type right now. Then I started getting nauseous and started to dry heave. I don't know what's wrong or what may have triggered it. This is the first time I've ever had a spasm. I've been spasming for about 3 hours now non-stop and I have work in about an hour. I'm so confused. My jaw keeps on making weird movements as well and my face scrunches up and all these other faces. Should I be terrified? because I am! My jaw keeps on making weird big underbites, jutting out and crossbites as well and at one point I was sure that my jaw was going to dislocate but it didn't. What is it that's causing these?

Please, anyone with information or similar experiences, I need your HELP!

Last edited by CaydenJ; 06-13-2008 at 04:50 AM.

The Following User Says Thank You to CaydenJ For This Useful Post:
Basicidea (08-02-2012)

Hey Cayden, oh my goodness.. a BIG HUG! im sorry to hear your like that take a deep breathe! Are you getting any pain...?

You need to see your dentist ASAP!

Botox can fix that and also a heatpac to reduce inflammation , same with Advil... but please if you can try seeing your dentist asap, and call in sick to work....

Are you in pain at the moment... oh gosh i hope you're ok.. im praying for you now ....... you are in my thoughts... deep breathes ok, you will be okay chant that to yourself, you're flare up will go down but for now try taking advil etc.

You may also want to take fish oil tablets and magnesium to help with stress relieve and muscle spasm....

I wish there was more i could do to help you please hang in there okay... See your dentist and get the xrays, as much as it hurts your jaw wont dislocate, something has set this off, but you will get better, flare up will go away soon, i also heard that ice followed by heat help fight of spasms.. God Bless

Sorry to say it but looks like you are in severe dental distress syndrome - what I call a dental meltdown. If you are not working with a tmj dentist at this point you need to now. Also, if you have a dental school or teaching unviversity or hospital near you, make an appt with their myofacial pain dept or pain mgmt clinic for tmj - there are anti-spasm and pain meds that might help as well as alternative therapies such as a chiro (try one trained in applied kinsesiology) , accupuncture and physical therapy.

My tmj started with a facial spasm in the middle of the night - my tongue then began to move uncontrollably, circling my back teeth, thrashing and thrusting itself in my mouth and eventually just got slammed against the left side of mouth and couldn't move for a while. I was in a state of constant spasm for more than a year and it wrecked my neck or cervical area (c-spine) which caused other problems and symptoms throughout my body. I couldn't work b/c of the pain and I couldn't keep my face or tongue still for more than a few minutes. I had the nausea and dry heaves and occasional vomitting too. I felt like my face was splitting into 2 peices and my lower jaw was going to snap or I was going to break my neck.

temera2, Thelma-Louise - Thank you for your kind words and support. TL, I did feel like Linda Blair just lying on my back. It felt like some invisible spirit was hovering over me tugging at my face. My tongue was doing that too! My body and face is so sore as well. 4 hours of constant twitching. My jaw feels like it's in a different position as well and when I bite down, my left side sounds like there's a spring like those fake anatomy lab skeletons. Normally, my left side is the good side. So a dental meltdown means my tmjs and not my mental state right? Had to ask especially after that UCLA consult I went to. They told me that my symptoms were all in my head.
So I'm guessing in other words that it'll only get worse from here. Is this a trigger point to bigger and scarier problems?

Well its not a good sign. From what I have been told it is the extreme form of muscular dysfunction - and yes its in your head but not a mental issue by no means - and if someone says it could be just get up and leave. It is seldom seen by most drs unless they are highly advanced, experienced and knowledgeable in tmj, the musculoskeletal structure and muscular disorders. It borders on the neurolgoical disorders of dystonia and dyskenesia (sp?) b/c the symptoms are similar to an extent - and some neurologists may want to treat it as such - but other than meds I doubt they can solve the problem. At this point a splint will help but you may first have to get the muscles to relax a bit before you can even be fitted for the splint or do both at the same time. It may not progress any further than what you have now assuming you receive the proper treatment - I unfortunately was treated incorrectly by drs who were not familiar with this form of muscular dysfunction and it did get much worse to my horror and disbelief - but on the brighter side I finally found a dentist last year who has seen this before and he referred me to my current chiro who has done a wonderful job in getting the bones which make up the head,face, neck and spine back to where they belong so the muscles would relax enough for the tmj dentist to start treatment - which hopefully begins next month. According to both my tmj dentist and the chiro - as the bite and jaw deviates the muscles go into spasm and left untreated the spasms become strong enough to force your skeletal structure out of alignment and torque or twist your body - when the body tries to correct itself more spasms develop - kind of like a vicious cycle. When I start tmj dental treatment next month I was told I would still probably need either botox injections or trigger point injections to help the muscles "forget" how to spasm as it has been 4 yrs for me now and there is a possibility this has become a habit or learned behavior on the part of the muscles. Although I still get the spasms daily, I can count them now whereas before they were pretty much non stop and would increase in frequency the more I tried to speak or chew anything.

If it continues please see a well trained specialist - I would hate to think anyone else would linger as long as I did with this type of problem.

Well its not a good sign. From what I have been told it is the extreme form of muscular dysfunction - and yes its in your head but not a mental issue by no means - and if someone says it could be just get up and leave. It is seldom seen by most drs unless they are highly advanced, experienced and knowledgeable in tmj, the musculoskeletal structure and muscular disorders. It borders on the neurolgoical disorders of dystonia and dyskenesia (sp?) b/c the symptoms are similar to an extent - and some neurologists may want to treat it as such - but other than meds I doubt they can solve the problem. At this point a splint will help but you may first have to get the muscles to relax a bit before you can even be fitted for the splint or do both at the same time. It may not progress any further than what you have now assuming you receive the proper treatment - I unfortunately was treated incorrectly by drs who were not familiar with this form of muscular dysfunction and it did get much worse to my horror and disbelief - but on the brighter side I finally found a dentist last year who has seen this before and he referred me to my current chiro who has done a wonderful job in getting the bones which make up the head,face, neck and spine back to where they belong so the muscles would relax enough for the tmj dentist to start treatment - which hopefully begins next month. According to both my tmj dentist and the chiro - as the bite and jaw deviates the muscles go into spasm and left untreated the spasms become strong enough to force your skeletal structure out of alignment and torque or twist your body - when the body tries to correct itself more spasms develop - kind of like a vicious cycle. When I start tmj dental treatment next month I was told I would still probably need either botox injections or trigger point injections to help the muscles "forget" how to spasm as it has been 4 yrs for me now and there is a possibility this has become a habit or learned behavior on the part of the muscles. Although I still get the spasms daily, I can count them now whereas before they were pretty much non stop and would increase in frequency the more I tried to speak or chew anything.

If it continues please see a well trained specialist - I would hate to think anyone else would linger as long as I did with this type of problem.